====== Craniopharyngioma treatment ======

Variable treatment modalities are available, including surgery, [[radiation therapy]], alternative surgeries, and intracystic therapies or combinations of them, their common goal is to reduce immediate and long-term morbidity while preserving these functions. Multiple attempts have been made to re-evaluate surgical and irradiation strategies in order to optimize their complication and morbidity profile. However, despite significant advances in "function-sparing" approaches, such as limited surgery and improved technologies of radiation therapies, achieving interdisciplinary consensus on the optimal treatment algorithm remains a challenge. Furthermore, there remains a significant span of improvement given the number of specialties involved as well as the complex and chronic nature of CP disease
((Lohkamp LN, Kasper EM, Pousa AE, Bartels UK. An update on multimodal management of craniopharyngioma in children. Front Oncol. 2023 May 5;13:1149428. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1149428. PMID: 37213301; PMCID: PMC10196165.)).
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Children with craniopharyngiomas (CPs) typically suffer from a life-long chronic disease. The younger the child, the more vulnerable the maturing brain is to invasive therapies such as [[craniopharyngioma surgery]]or [[craniopharyngioma radiotherapy]].
Therefore, treatment modalities facilitating avoidance or delay of [[invasive]] therapies are beneficial for these patients. In the last decade, intracystic injection of [[interferon-alfa]]-2a or alfa-2b evolved as a treatment of choice based on efficacy and minor [[toxicity]]. However, the drug is no longer available internationally. After an extensive pharmacological review, peginterferon alfa-2a was identified as the agent with closest similarity.

===== Surgery ===== 

see [[Craniopharyngioma surgery]].

===== Radiotherapy =====
[[Craniopharyngioma radiotherapy]].